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Multiple Mini Interviews

Applicants selected for stage two of the admissions process will be asked to attend a nine station multiple mini interview (MMI) to determine non-cognitive performance. MMIs are being used to test non-cognitive competence and the applicant’s personal statement is considered within this process. the provisional dates for 2015 entry for the MMIs are January 20, 21 and 22 and March 11. No offers will be made until all the interviews are over and all applicants are marked and ranked. This is likely to be late March/early April 2015.

These interviews have been designed to test the following which have been identified by both patients and academic staff as key non-cognitive competencies for medicine:

Sample interview station 1

You the candidate are asked to assume you are a first year medical student and that on your way home from class you reach a bus stop. At the bus stop a class mate is sitting there looking glum, obviously upset. You don't know their name. Demonstrate how you would approach this situation. Your classmate will be waiting at the bus stop when you enter the station.

This station has been designed to test the candidate’s ability to communicate and to demonstrate empathy.

The video shows the candidate (left) interacting with an actor playing the part of a fellow student as in the scenario above. The examiner (far right) is using a structured marking sheet to assess the competencies.

Sample interview station 2

The format of this example is a semi-structured interview with an examiner.

Non Cognitive competencies being assessed:

Problem solving

Ethical reasoning

Communication

Instruction to the candidate:

Your mother rings you and asks you to come round and help with a major family decision. Her 70 year old father has been diagnosed with a condition that will kill him sometime in the next five years. He can have a procedure that will correct the disease and not leave him with any long term problems, but the procedure has a 10% mortality rate. He wants to have the procedure but your mother is not in favour of it. How would you help mediate this issue?

Aim of the question (seen by the interviewer only) to find out if the candidate:

Demonstrates sensitivity to the needs of others

Understands the right of the patient to be fully involved in decisions about their care

Can think of ways to help resolve a situation when emotional issues may cloud one’s judgement